Bekenstein's generalized second law of thermodynamics: the role of the hoop conjecture

DOI10.1016/J.PHYSLETB.2015.10.052zbMATH Open1360.83034arXiv1511.03665OpenAlexW2137970835WikidataQ123024305 ScholiaQ123024305MaRDI QIDQ526324FDOQ526324

Authors: Shahar Hod 

Publication date: 10 May 2017

Published in: Physics Letters B (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Bekenstein's generalized second law (GSL) of thermodynamics asserts that the sum of black-hole entropy, $S_{extBH}=A{c}^3/4hbarG$ (here $A$ is the black-hole surface area), and the ordinary entropy of matter and radiation fields in the black-hole exterior region never decreases. We here re-analyze an intriguing gedanken experiment which was designed by Bekenstein to challenge the GSL. In this historical gedanken experiment an entropy-bearing box is lowered into a charged Reissner-Nordstr"om black hole. For the GSL to work, the resulting increase in the black-hole surface area (entropy) must compensate for the loss of the box's entropy. We show that if the box can be lowered adiabatically all the way down to the black-hole horizon, as previously assumed in the literature, then for near-extremal black holes the resulting increase in black-hole surface-area (due to the assimilation of the box by the black hole) may become too small to compensate for the loss of the box's entropy. In order to resolve this apparent violation of the GSL, we here suggest to use a generalized version of the hoop conjecture. In particular, assuming that a physical system of mass $M$ and electric charge $Q$ forms a black hole if its circumference radius $r_{extc}$ is equal to (or smaller than) the corresponding Reissner-Nordstr"om black-hole radius $r_{extRN}=M+sqrt{M}^2-Q^2$, we prove that a new (and larger) horizon is already formed before the entropy-bearing box reaches the horizon of the original near-extremal black hole. This result, which seems to have been overlooked in previous analyzes of the composed black-hole-box system, ensures the validity of Bekenstein's GSL in this famous gedanken experiment.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1511.03665

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Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Measures of information, entropy (94A17) Black holes (83C57) Foundations of thermodynamics and heat transfer (80A05)

Cites Work

• Particle creation by black holes
• Sharp bounds on the critical stability radius for relativistic charged spheres
• Challenging the generalized second law
• The art of science: Interview with Professor John Archibald Wheeler

Cited In (13)

• Challenging the generalized second law
• On the hoop conjecture in Einstein gravity coupled to nonlinear electrodynamics
• Exploring black holes as particle accelerators: hoop-radius, target particles and escaping conditions
• A conjectured universal relation for black holes and horizonless compact stars
• A lower bound on the Bekenstein-Hawking temperature of black holes
• Investigations on hoop conjecture for horizonless spherical charged stars
• Large entropy production inside black holes: a simple model
• The black hole dynamical horizon and generalized second law of thermodynamics
• Israel-Stewart approach to viscous dissipative extended holographic Ricci dark energy dominated universe
• Generalized second law and the Bekenstein entropy bound in Gedankenexperiments with black holes
• Upper bound on the center-of-mass energy of the collisional Penrose process
• Cosmic censorship and weak gravity conjecture in the Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory
• Extremal bifurcations of rotating \(\mathrm{AdS}_4\) black holes

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